Video message from Suzanne Craig

Message

Ethical decision-making is critical to a government’s reputation and its relationship with the public. Reputation shapes the public’s opinion about government officials’ personal integrity, honesty and overall government performance. In some cases, it can overpower all other values of a government organization, including competence, experience and expertise.

Elected officials are representatives of the public and they are expected to:

answer public inquires in a clear and timely manner

avoid any interest or activity (financial or personal) that conflicts with official duties

Code of Ethical Conduct for Members of Council

It discusses expectations for behaviour and actions of Council Members in various situations.

It indicates that Council Members will be held accountable if a section of the code is violated.

It provides a tool to evaluate and strengthen support for acting ethically and responsibly.

The primary role of the Integrity Commissioner is to educate Members of Council on the requirements found in the code. This is done to prevent violations before they occur. At the beginning of each term of Council, all new and returning Council Members meet with the Integrity Commissioner to discuss their obligations outlined by the code.

With more than 15 years of legal, management and policy experience in the public and private sectors, she has an in-depth understanding of the procedures, rules and investigative processes of provincial and municipal agencies, boards and commissions.

Ms. Craig was an independent administrative tribunal agent, arbitrator and mediator across Ontario, in the areas of labour relations, human rights, workplace safety, insurance and tenant protection. She was also a lawyer in Italy and a forensic investigator in the European banking sector.

Ms. Craig held various leadership positions at the Province of Ontario where she built effective and sustainable compliance frameworks based on the principles of openness, transparency and accountability. Her major tasks involved creating quality assurance initiatives, leading complaint investigations and developing corporate ethics strategies. Her positions included:

director of Corporate Access and Privacy at the City of Toronto

special projects advisor at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change